Why? The evolution of digital media has facilitated the integration of previously distinct marketing disciplines. The lines blurred and responsibilities were woven together – with the benefit of tighter integration.

Does this mean the end of the road for the PR? Will the professional communicator be subsumed permanently by marketing?

No, I don’t think that’s the case. It’s just the opposite.

Instead, the approach good PR professionals champion is permeating marketing. I’m not sure PR pros are ready for this because it dramatically raises bar on what is excellence. The competition is coming from all sides. This is evident in that core PR tenants have been prominently at work in marketing trends over the last decade.

The influence of PR was clear in search marketing when Google became the new front page. We saw it in the rise of social media, where authenticity reigned and rejected commercialization. The PR approach was apparent too in inbound marketing – earning attention and forgoing interruption marketing.

PR isn’t being subsumed by marketing – it’s shaping a better approach to marketing. PR isn’t diminishing in business value – it’s more strategic than ever. PR isn’t becoming less important – it’s becoming more important.

So, while I believe the conclusion, that the term “public relations” might indeed be less fitting in the future, I draw that conclusion for a very different reason. Successful businesses and marketing leaders will seize on this as an opportunity; the future of marketing looks more like public relations.

About Sword and the Script Media, LLC

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Sword and the Script Media, LLC is veteran-owned public relations agency immersed in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. We focus on building consistent, sustainable, repeatable, and process-driven programs for PR, content marketing and social media. A defining difference comes down to our approach – that marketing ought to have utility. This is because marketing that helps, sells better than marketing that hypes.